Police suspect sexual assault, arrest 1

GUWAHATI: Investigators have discovered what appear to be “semen stains” on the clothes of two women found dead in toilets of trains in Assam this week even as a 40-year-old man was arrested on Thursday in connection with the suspected murders.

Autopsy reports were awaited to confirm sexual assault, a railway police officer said, not wishing to be named.

“Two separate cases have been registered at railway police stations in Simaluguri and Mariani under sections 302 (murder) and 376 (rape)…,” said special director general of police (railways) R Chandranathan. Simaluguri is 54km from Mariani and falls on the same railway route.

Bikas Das, the accused, was picked up from Tinsukia railway station. Another suspect was on the run. “He (Das) has confessed to his role,” said railway protection force (RPF) inspector general BB Mishra, in charge of the northeast frontier railway (NFR). Das runs a tea shop in Tinsukia.

“He was caught as he waited on the platform for another train,” said Tinsukia division NFR’S divisional security commissioner BS Meena. He added that a cell phone of one of the two women, railway ticket from Sivasagar to Furkating station and jewellery of the other victim had been recovered from Das.

Meena said the families of the two have identified the items. He said the suspect has been handed over to the government railway police (GRP). The RPF is not authorised to arrest the suspect.

A 21-year-old Assam Agricultural University student from Bihar was found strangled in the toilet of a compartment reserved for differently-abled people on the New Tinsukia-rangiya Express on Tuesday. A gamosa (traditional Assamese hand- woven towel) was found tied around her neck. There were no witnesses as the compartment was empty. Similarly, the body of a 48-year-old woman, also from Bihar, was recovered from the toilet of a compartment reserved for differently-abled on AwadhAssam Express at Jorhat’s Mariani Junction on Wednesday.

Police said she had boarded the train from Dibrugarh. A gamosa was found tied around her neck as well. Assam director-general of police Kuladhar Saikia has constituted a special investigation team to probe the murders. Additional director general RPS Meena would head the team.